Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-12
JOURNALISM AND OFFICE.
Henry watt.rson on Newspaper Men in
PnlirirR.
louisville Argus.

hSnET "HLLSEBUA oh CSGSspApoI A1AcA III
Politics.
louisville Argus.
| To the Editor of the Sunday argus:
SIR am not insensible to the conf.
dence and honor implied by the sugges-
ton ofmy name for United States Senator,
and if l have failed to respond to your
nomination it has been because of ballet
| that my opinions respecting holding office
are so well known as 10 require no par
ticular repetition. It was not until my
return TO Kentucky after q protrscted
| absence that 1 learned Of your continuous
and most fsttering urgency, and since
your remarks calI for an answer it would
be uncourteous to withhold. l Will say
again, what have often said in public
sud private, that there is no posi-
ton within the gift of the govern
ment or the people, the acceptance
Of which l would even consider.
had this question to decide when
some years ago it presented itself more
tangiblY-if you will allow NE to differ
from you in thinking-than it does new,
and, deciding il in the negative, decid-
ed it for eli time.
The example of two eminent membsTS
VA Jul pLOGC5SIOAg UAOSS SSAGOlLtlOHO
the field of practical politics embittered
their lives and dwarfed their usefulness,
and furnished their fame, and the tragic
fate which each in his death encountered
made an early and deep impression upon
my mind. When ] accepted seat IN the
national House of Representatives it Was
accompanied by the statement that the
holding of office had entered into no plan
or scheme o. mine, and was coupled with
the refusal to serve longer than the es-
pecial purpose and occasion, which, at g.
moment of extraordinary public danger,
called me into the peoples branch OF
Congress. My experience there was g
verification of my preconceptions and
predictions. For all the good l wss
able to do l might as we'll have stayed st
home.
think, with Phillip Van Artevelde,
that
Men In their places are the men VINO stand.
am, and have been ell my life, 6
journalist, and working journals t.
equal TO the duties which yield me q
sufficiency, happy in my associates and
proud Of my calling. [ set it neither
above, nor below, that Of other men. It
JIG simply, like the choice of the swain in
the immortal pastoral "mine own" As
such, for good or i'll, shall abide by il
to the end But l will give it through
you, the tribute that may be found in the
confession that never knew what pure
selfshness means and squalid sdepend;
ence is, until found myself al atom 81
that class in which, more than In any
other or earth, it is every man foy him
self and devil take the hindmOst.
thank you, sir, for your CREST good
| viii and for the phrases of compliment in
which you have couched it. r aIaN ex-
ceedingly susceptible to such expressions
from my professional comrades. They
seduce me in this instance to garrulity
disproportioned to the subject, because
am of the opinion that the Democrats OF
Kentucky have already determined thai
another than myself shall represent them
in the National Senate, and in my judg-
ment they have determined very wisely
and altogether for the best.
am, dear sir, your obliged fellow
citizen and fellow worker.
| HENRY WATTERsON.
Courier Journal Office, October l.